Claws Out
The artist E.V. Day is best known for sculptures that address the sticky paradoxes of the feminine ideal. Recently, the native Manhattanite moved to a live-in studio on outskirts of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with her husband, the cookbook author Ted Lee. Fittingly, Day’s airy new space is home to one of her largest works to date—a pair of suspended saber tooth tigers that will be on view this month at Mary Boone Gallery as part of her solo exhibition, “Semi-Feral.” Here, a peek behind the scenes. “Semi-Feral” is on view till October 25th at Mary Boone Gallery, 745 Fifth Avenue, New York. A second iteration of “Semi-Feral” will be presented at Salomon Contemporary in Chelsea, which opens October 18th.
The artist in her studio.
“I was inspired by the fossils discovered the La Brea tar pits—and the caves that are around San Antonio—these primitive relics bubbling over into the civilized world.”
“This piece was originally part of my residency at Artspace San Antonio. There was so much room out that I wanted to do something massive. Luckily it fits just as well in my new space.”
“A friend told me to tag each line so they wouldn’t get tangled, which sounded like a logistical nightmare—so I ended up creating a grid system that grouped the wires by parts.”
“When men fight one of two things happen, someone gets hurt or someone breaks it up, but when women catfight there is this tendency towards this sort of odd voyeurism—where we step back as if we want them to pull each other apart. I wanted to play out that scenario but with nature’s most ferocious cat.”
“Everything has a place. I can’t work in chaos.”
“In the smaller version of “CatFight” I used real bones, for this project I ordered the skeletons from a mold company that creates them for science museums and universities.”
From left: Day’s Portable Catfight, 2007, and her Bridal Supernova, 2006, at Mary Boone.
“The installation is a continuation of a technique I developed for my Bridal Supernova series —where I dissected these intricate little wedding dresses and transformed them into explosion.”
“The first version of this piece had a clear winner. This time I wanted it to be more dynamic—I wanted it to look like they were more evenly matched.”
Day’s “CatFight” installed at Mary Boone Gallery.
